Candide is a French satire first published in
1759.
The tale
begins with young Candide, who lives a sheltered existence in a virtual Eden,
full of optimism for the life ahead of him. But this his existence is abruptly cut
short, when he suddenly experiences poverty. Candide concludes, “we must all
plough our own garden,” for “everything is for the best in the best of all
possible worlds.”
The tone
is sarcastic indeed and the book pokes holes in many a cliché. Voltaire
ridicules religion, theology, political constitutions, military and philosophy.
The book was
both enthusiastically welcomed but caused also a major scandal.
Immediately
upon being printed in secret, it was banned far and wide, for barely hidden
beneath a thin veneer, it mocked God, enticed political turmoil and opposed
accepted intellectual norms.